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 MR
Salaries and
RecruitmentIt’s tempting fate, but we have to say it sometime. The MR jobs market is healthy again, and fair set to go on growing through 2004. After three fairly gloomy half years and a patchy start to 2003, the second half of 2003 saw a recovery in the number of vacancies at all levels, and this has been reinforced in the first two months of 2004. Pay packets show a different story – the mean salary for most levels of vacancy saw a slight fall between June and December ’03. Looking just at numbers of vacancies posted on MrWeb, the second half of 2003 is the not only the busiest ever for all job titles except IT and DP functions – it is comfortably ahead of any previous 6 month period. For example there were 267 vacancy ads for project managers in this period – 72 more than in the first half of the year and almost twice the number in any previous half year period – and the 415 ads for SREs represent by far the highest number of ads for any one job function in any 6 month period. Some of this is again down to an increased number of advertisers, but there has been a genuine recovery in the jobs market, as most of our recruitment consultancy advertisers confirm: [ Continued under chart ]
Most of the levels have seen a fall in remuneration over the last 6 months – the main exception is clientside Research Managers, whose pay has maintained its new level after a steep climb over the previous year. However, mean salaries fluctuate quite a lot if considered in 6-monthly slots and it's more sensible to look for longer-term trends. In particular, a comparison with the second half of 2000 – the same period of the year but pre-slump – is instructive. This shows that all salaries from JRE to ‘Director Plus’ have increased, but in two categories the increase has been very slight – RE and SRE. SRE salaries in particular have risen by only 200 pounds in three years – about 0.7%, while clientside RMs and agency ADs have seen ten times that increase. This is more interesting when considered alongside one of Liz Norman's comments: ‘there is a particularly critical shortage of candidates with around three years experience, looking for roles in research agencies, and this is bound to drive salaries in the near future’. SREs, often the engine room of agencies, are more than ever in demand and their remuneration over the past 3 years has not reflected the shortage of good candidates. We predicted 6 months ago that their salaries would increase fast and if we were a bit premature it’s true that salaries on SRE vacancies have fallen less than those for REs, PMs or ADs since July. In the first two months of this year 173 SRE level ads have appeared, with a mean salary of £28,000 – and there are a growing number of ads posted for SRE positions at £30,000+. For the coming year, therefore, we’ll happily stick our necks out and suggest that SRE salaries will average closer to £29,000 than the current £27,500 – and what’s more that agency side positions from Project Manager up to ‘Director plus’ will also show a healthy increase. As for the number of positions available, that is unlikely to stop growing – it has already risen from 1,045 in the first half of 2003 to 1,359 in the second half, all the more striking since it actually fell in the second half of 2002. There are a number of specific features of the jobs market at present worth mentioning. One is the number of high level, very well paid roles for senior personnel, especially where they have business development experience. This has been noticeable since the winter of 2001-2 when companies put a premium on directors who could help them hang onto business and find more in a time of difficulty – but it shows signs of accelerating rather than tailing off with the upturn in the industry – obviously the remit now is to help make the most of good conditions.
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